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I have a student in my photo 2 class who is average. She gets most of her work done but it has never been anything exceptional. She has turned class into a social hour and comes to chat with her friends. Today however, she said something strange. We took fake flowers outside to photograph them with a narrow depth of field and when we came back inside and uploaded them she said, “I think this is the best photo I have ever taken.” I went over to look at it and she was right. It not only was the best photo she’s ever taken but one of the best in the class so far this semester. Today I watched her work and it appeared like she was having a fun time experimenting. I think things finally clicked for her and she relized that she was capable of taking amazing photographs. I can’t wait to see what she can come up with in the next seven weeks of school, with this new built confidence. It’s moments like this that make my day sometimes even my year and make me feel like I’m making a difference.

About 20 minutes before class today, I completely nixed my lesson plan and decided to introduce a contest to the kids to spice up the day. Taking inspiration from one of my favorite shows, Project Runway, I told the students … Continue reading →

Today was the start of gridding in drawing 1 class. To make it a little more fun and excitable, I cut up strips of popular icons and handed them out to the students. They then had a blank strip of paper double the size of the one I gave them. Their job was to enlarge the strip on their new paper and then we combined them to form our celebrities. It was pretty funny to see how ridiculous they looked when we were done. I lined the strips up to show them if they were right or off and then moved the strips to the correct positions.

This weekend I had the privilege of photographing my sister and her soon to be husband. We explored downtown Sioux Falls and had a little fun with chalk, on Saturday, and then moved into the studio before an early Easter … Continue reading →

In photography class, this week, we are working on stopping motion. We’re using telephoto lenses and external flashes to capture water dropping into a dish and then the aftermath of the water coming back up. Here’s an example of the … Continue reading →

My drawing 1 kids finished a stippling drawing today. We first worked on turning 2-D shapes into 3-D forms by adding dots. The closer the dots are together, the darker the value, the farther apart, the lighter. We also talked … Continue reading →

Yesterday and today my students used their DIY Bokeh Filters for the first time. Before they used them, they didn’t believe me or understand at all what would happen to the lights. I hung up Christmas lights from a backdrop … Continue reading →

I got a kit of Bokeh filters for Christmas and finally took them out of the envelope today. My students are entering their filter unit and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share. I tested it out … Continue reading →